BBC chief supports C4, Five merge

The BBC director-general BBC has called on the UK government to help his commercial rivals survive the economic slowdown, so that "their content might help inspire the population to adopt high-speed broadband technologies." Writing for the FT, Mark Thompson has supported a merger of Channel 4 and Five, a course thought to be favoured by Lord Carter, the new communications minister.

The BBC is keen to avoid any solution involving the sharing of its license fee income.